The story of these two geniuses is worth knowing. Paul Allen and Bill Gates started out as two young people passionate about computers in Seattle.
They spent hours in computer labs when very few people even knew what a microprocessor was. That led them to found Microsoft in 1975, an idea largely from Allen, who convinced Gates to leave Harvard and bet everything on a dream: creating software that could run on any personal computer.
During the first years, the good relationship between the two was vital to achieving large agreements, such as the contract with IBM that catapulted Microsoft.. Allen was responsible for providing essential technical vision and a spirit that allowed the company to grow like wildfire.
But, at the same time, internal friction related to management, control and merits began to appear within the company.
At the beginning of the 80s, the relationship between the two hit rock bottom.
As Microsoft became huge, the relationship became more strained. The lifelong friends increasingly became partners with very different visions.
Gates had a way of working aggressive, obsessive with performance and productivity. Allen saw technology in a completely opposite way. That difference, which at first seemed like just a different way of working, ended up becoming the end of it.
In his autobiography published in 2011, Idea ManPaul Allen recounted a very difficult episode that occurred in 1982. According to him, he heard Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer talk about his supposed low productivity while Allen was undergoing cancer treatment. In that same conversation, as he explained, they talked about increasing shares in the company in a way that reduced their shareholding.
Allen entered the room, confronted both of them, and the meeting ended with apologies, but the damage had already been done.. In his book he described what happened as «mercenary opportunism, plain and simple,» making it clear that that moment confirmed to him that Gates wanted to fire him.
He also said that, although many important technological ideas had been his, he did not feel that he received fair recognition. «There was a lot of stress because of their demands,» he says.
The shareholding distribution also made the distances increasingly wider. At first Gates had 60% and Allen 40%, but this changed. Over time, Allen accepted these changes, but disappointment grew until his official departure from the company in 1983, although he remained a shareholder for decades.
Two enormous geniuses totally incompatible
The controversy once this book came out was enormous. The truth is that many believed that the two remained friends until that moment. Carl Stork, who worked at Microsoft at the time, said Gates played a much larger role in the company’s growth.
Other experts, such as Professor David Yoffie of Harvard Business School, defended the importance of the co-founder: «Bill would not have left Harvard if it were not for Paul.»
The reality is that the relationship between the two was never the same again. Although they maintained cordial contact and Gates publicly acknowledged his influence after Allen’s death in 2018, the situation experienced in the past marked a before and after.